Road To The Colored Kingdoms
by ChanceTaCrit7027
Summary: A potential war is brewing up in a land far far away and in order to stop it one must be ready to take it all on. A Gallade has to walk the road with no turning back, his past unknown, he has to quell a fight he knows is going to be hard. On the Road To The Colored Kingdoms. Contains AU, OC aplenty, Mary Sue, no humans.
1. The Unnamed

The quiet wind swept through a large open field like a steady current. The field was filled with the greenest of grasses, including wildflowers of all types that had scattered here and there in the unorganised patterns of nature, swaying at the mercy of the northern wind currents that was coming in the direction from the visible but far off mountain range, which is almost hidden by the dozens of the tall oak-wood trees before it.

In the middle of the field sat a very old white-petal sakura tree that was easily bigger than any other tree of its species meaning that it must be at least a hundred years old if not older, it was in its flower blooming stage so the whole tree is an almost pure white color, this also means it was between mid-March and early April. It made that particular spot feel somewhat otherworldly, the colors of the tree and everything around it only showed the pure contrast to each other despite being in the same place. The tree proved to be in the same realm when a gust of wind blew off multiple petals from the branches of the tree and onto the ground.

The bright yellow sun was directly in between two pine-trees in the east, which is located on the other side of a long sparkling stream, signaling that the time was around early morning. The sparkling stream reflected the beautiful blue sky that viewed the whole world like a hawk high up in the world's atmosphere.

In the direction of downstream, the surface of the water had taken in the colors of the green pine trees like a mirror, which that sat beside the stream as if it's the guardians that protects the small rivers' purity as it's on an infinite path heading down to the south.

The sounds of the wilderness was bustling with activity as if it was a symphony of splashing waters, a rushing river and howling trees that spoke with the wind.

It was like nothing could break it from its phases of natural beauty.

Not even when the forming of a purplish-blue looking warp of space and time was occurring right on top of the stream 40 meters up. It finished its appearance to look like a mouth to a wormhole, it was facing downwards in a twisting motion, it made no noise whatsoever, in fact, it was eerily quiet.

"Aaaaah!" An unknown voice screamed, temporarily blocking all of the other sounds. Something was falling from the mouth of the wormhole.

It had landed into and through the water's surface, generating a big splash of water high into the air.

The stream had settled into its usual running immediately, as if nothing happened, until the water popped up outwards as a blue thing drew in for a breath of air quickly, it held its head above the water.

Looking at its face proved that it was indeed a pokemon, a gallade to be exact.

"Well, that was a fun ride." He uttered to himself, he looked around to view his surroundings. He smiled at what he saw, then closed his eyes and began taking in everything from all of his senses for a small while.

Although he couldn't really ignore the pushy watery vacuum that's trying to take him southward any longer.

Finally deciding that standing in shoulder deep water was not a very appropriate place to be in, he slowly made his way towards the shores of the water until he was completely out of the big stream.

This gallade was wearing a blue scarf that sat snugly around his neck, his body color is white and blue which means that this gallade is a shiny.

"A-choo!" He sneezed abruptly, water was dripping off of him and his scarf, he was completely soaked around every inch of his body.

He closed his eyes for a second in concentration and then he vanished, having all the water that was on his body drop to the ground, then he reappeared. _That's better._ He thought.

With all that water no longer clinging to his body he started to walk around a bit, exploring everything that was nearby. The trees, different parts of the stream, the flowers. He stopped at a tree right in the middle of the field, it was a sakura tree.

After gazing at the beautiful white tree for a minute he sat on the ground right beside its thick trunk, he brought his legs out in a stretch for a couple of seconds, he stopped to lay them out, then he moved his arms outwards with his hands behind his head in an effort to get comfortable, he dozed off only seconds later.

While he was busy sleeping, something else just entered the field, it arrived from a near hidden path that opens up from the opposite side of the small river, close to the sakura tree.

The gallade was dreaming in his sleep, no, not dreaming, he was having a nightmare.

Everything was blurry with absolutely no detail whatsoever besides the colors that acted as vague images to the scenery.

"Hey!" The small blue and white colored blob exclaimed to the figure opposite from it, this one being larger and brown.

A line of red could be seen on the blue figures' front area, presumably on its head or face, it's hard to make out what it really looked like.

"There's no point in resisting anymore," The brown blurry figure spoke in dominance. "This happened because of you. Isn't that right?" It said cunningly.

The blue blob backed up slowly, looking ready to make a dash when it's needed as it most certainly did, the brown thing advanced on the blue blob, its shape twisting into that of unbelievably large claws, ready to swipe at the blue blob when it reaches it, the brown thing was too fast and was almost upon it.

"STOP!" A new voice spoke loudly, interrupting them, it was...

"Hey!" A feminine voice echoed everywhere, everything was shaking, the colors of the blobs were molding together into a picture of random dark shaded colors, quite similar to that of an artist's work on an abstract painting. "Hey! Wake up!" Everything shattered into a million pieces.

The gallade opened his eyes slowly and is greeted by a blurry red and black thing, eyes still unfocused he wondered what it was, he brought his hands up to rub some sense into his eyelids, clearing them from its blurry state, then he opened them again.

"Geez! you're a heavy sleeper." The female said, it was a zoroark, she had a smooth rocky necklace around her neck that had about two colors, red and black, all of which is shiny and the colors were melded together on all of the rocks, every individual rock was round, small, smooth and bumpy. She was sitting in the kneeling position with her claws on the ground for support, leaning towards the gallade with eyes full of concern.

"What?" The gallade said, taken aback by her sudden presence. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" The zoroark replied back. "Can you tell me who YOU are first?" She sounded like she was surprised to find him there.

The gallade sat upwards a bit, his focus seemed to shift to the steady stream that he had fallen into earlier, then to the sun that was now towering over all of the trees, it was late morning and early noon now. _Must have slept for an hour._ He concluded in his thoughts. His gaze settled back on the zoroark.

The gallade finally speaks, "My name is-" He was only able to get out, but was interrupted by a booming male voice. "FELICIA!" The voice was close, but sounded more distant than it really was because of the trees that was blocking the way, it was coming from the hidden path.

The zoroark shuffled to her feet uneasily, the gallade picked up on her nervousness and got up as well. "What's getting you so worked up?" He asked.

She was behind the tree as soon as the gallade was up though. "What are you doing?" The gallade sounded baffled, it was pretty strange to be hiding in a place like this. _Something seems fishy._ He thought in secret.

The voice spoke out again, but saying something else this time. "PRINCESS!?" This voice was looking for someone, better yet. _Princess, Felicia._ He puzzled together.

Now it made sense.

"Are you," the gallade said to the currently unseeable zoroark, "a runaway?" he continued to look in the general direction as he waited for an answer, which came to him rather quickly in a hushed down voice. "Please don't tell him I'm here! How did he even find my hidden illusioned entrance?" She uttered the last part to herself, the gallade heard it anyways, then gave his honest answer. "It could be because the illusion was too weak and it was seen through pretty easily."

The zoroark wasn't impressed with that answer. "What do you mean weak? I have the best illusion around." Though she was too busy hiding to sound like she was offended by that.

The voice got louder right after she said that. "FELICIA!? DARLING!? IT'S TIME TO-" Something stepped out into the field, right through the not-so-secret-anymore entrance. It was a kadabra, though this one had on a red tie around his neck, he saw the gallade and teleported a safe distance away from him and stood there for five seconds, not saying a word.

"It appears that I can't read you at all." The kadabra spoke in a manner to something like that of a Butler, polite and right to the point. _And bored sounding._ The gallade added inwardly. It was silent for the better part of two minutes until he talked again. "You wouldn't happened to have met a dark type anywhere by any chance?"

"Yes I have actually." The gallade chirped happily. Meanwhile, behind the sakura tree was a very scared zoroark. _He is gonna rat me out isn't he!?_ She thought as if her mind was on fire, she was noticeably sweating bullets as the conversation went on between the two males.

The kadabra was intrigued instantly. "Really? Would you be so kind as to show me where that dark type is?" The kadabra seemed to take an attitude turn, the meaning behind his words sounded partly relieved now.

The gallade smirked proudly. "I'd be glad to." He said as he held out his arm and grasped the kadabra's shoulder, he turned him around gently to face the stream and then said. "The dark type is just over this stream here!" He gently pushed and walked behind the kadabra as he was saying that until they reached the stream.

The zoroark shifted behind the tree to hide from their view, not paying any attention to the twig that was just the last step away. *snap!*

"What was that!" the kadabra rushed out and twisted his whole body, stopping to face the gallade who stood in front of him, he was blocking the kadabra's vision to the tree. The gallade moved his head sideways in one smooth motion. *crack!*

The gallade just shrugged it off. "Sorry, just me." He said while smiling innocently.

The kadabra wordlessly turned back towards the river, eyes searching past the rocky shores, he was scanning the wooded area until he spoke up. "Well? Can you show me soon perhaps? I have things I still need to do." He sounded a bit annoyed, mainly because he couldn't see anything.

They were suddenly enveloped in a purplish-blue aura for a split second until they disappeared. On the other side of the lake the company reappeared in the same colored aura that vanished only a second later, the kadabra looked perplexed for a moment, unable to identify the feeling he got when they suddenly teleported.

"It's located a bit over here." The gallade said while he started to walk in the direction of the ever growing trees and plants. The kadabra followed, still thinking about that feeling. _Out of all my years, I have never felt something like that before. Weird._ He thought, still following the strange gallade to find what he had lost.

They walked in the direction for about five minutes, the kadabra was losing his patience. "You better not be wasting my time here youngster," he said, hints of threat lacing his voice. "Because if you are, then bless Arceus with your soul. I will not be merciful." He continued walking, silence hit them for a minute until something could be seen shaking ahead.

When they reached it they discovered it to be a shaking bush, about the size of a crouching zoroark. "Felicia? Get out of the bush and come back already, running away won't solve any-" The kadabra stopped as he saw what had come out of the bush, it was a scrafty.

The scrafty was looking like he had been caught stealing from the cookie jar.

The kadabra looked to his unnamed helper, he was about to say something until the gallade beat him to it. "Here is the dark type that you were looking for." The gallade folded his arms as he leaned on his left leg, seemingly in the fact that he's done his job.

The kadabra was looking irate, this gallade was making a fool out of him, he spoke up in anger. "How dare you have me follow you through the shrubbery, all just to find some unidentified scrafty!" His anger poured out of him like a volcano, this clearly wasn't what he wanted to find.

The gallade was unmoving, he moved his eyes to meet the kadabra's and calmly said. "Why don't you identify the scrafty then?" The gallade was unfazed by the kadabra's recent outburst.

Though the kadabra was mad, he knew that there was something familiar about this scrafty and it only took him 0.001 seconds to realize why. "You are the thief that ransacked the red life crystal from its place in the kingdom!" The scrafty was terrified, as soon as the kadabra took one step in the scrafty's direction, he ran away.

He flew past the bush in a pace that would be deemed impossible for its species to be able to perform.

The kadabra was so surprised by its speed that he stood there for a moment. The gallade on the other hand was still not moving from his spot, he had on a face that wasn't even worried, it was more carefree even.

The kadabra finally moved out in an effort to stop the fleeing suspect, he stopped when he saw the scrafty on the ground on his stomach behind the same bush they'd found him in, he was in a squarish-round hole about 3 feet down, between the hole and the bush was a knot of tough-looking grass, it was a fresh bright green color.

The scrafty had swirls in his eyes, meaning he was knocked out.

After the quick assessment the kadabra spoke up. "This is too much of a coincidence. Did you have something to do with this? Gallade?" The kadabra questioned the other psychic type. The gallade finally moved, he made his way to the side of the hole that contained the dark type, arms still folded, the gallade spoke. "Yeah." He stated simply, nodding his head once in affirmation.

The kadabra spoke up. "You must've used grass knot to trip him into the hole, but." The kadabra seemed troubled. "How did he end up in a hole, knocked out no less?" He knew what happened, but only partially.

The gallade told him. "I used my psychic power to move the dirt over here," The gallade pointed to a dirt pile located beside the tree, it's unseeable from where they were standing before thanks to the angle, "and I used grass knot to knock him into the hole so he couldn't run. It was because of his own speedy getaway that knocked him out just from the force alone, I just reinforced the grass so it wouldn't break." He scratched behind his head sheepishly, though he didn't sound surprised at all when he admitted it.

The kadabra was still not convinced. "But you were beside me the whole time! How could have you done this while we just got here?" He realized something else as well and said. "How did you know where this thief was hiding? You're a psychic type, he's a dark type, this can't be possible!" He was ranting at this point. "Psychic's can't even detect the whereabouts of dark at all without," he paused for a second, eyes widening. "Impossible."

The gallade decided to put a stop to the rambling kadabra. "No. I don't know miracle eye if that's what you're trying to say." The kadabra relaxed a bit, probably knowing that he lost his wits temporarily in front a complete stranger and decided to straighten up, the gallade continued. "Let's just say that I have another way of seeing things, but that is personal information so I can't tell you." He stated, his tone told the kadabra to say nothing more about it.

"Anyways," The gallade unfolded his arms and jumped in the hole right beside the scrafty, "this must be more important than such secrets." He reached into the scrafty's unguarded skin and pulled out a red crystal, it shines a bright blood red from every source of light available, it has a multi-polygon shape that's small enough to fit snugly in any pokemon-human-sized hand.

The kadabra tensed back up when he recognized the stone, then he said out loud. "Give me that stone!" He sounded desperate, the gallade noticed this as well and began to wave it around, saying. "How would I be able to know if you're not just an evil pokemon like this one here." He pointed to the scrafty with one of his thumbs, his facial expression turning into that of a frown, he stopped waving the crystal.

The kadabra was taken aback by this. "Do you not know what would happen if that stone doesn't return to the kingdom soon!?" He was shouting at this point. "The other kingdoms would be able to penetrate our strongholds and reign supreme!"

The gallade was absorbing the massive amounts of information the kadabra was spewing, the kadabra just continued. "That means there will be huge amounts of casualties to pokemon who just want to live in peace!" He continued. "And YOU will be the one responsible for it if you don't return it to its rightful place and out of your dirty hands!" The kadabra added spitefully, he then waited for the gallade to make his move patiently, he lowered his eyelids into a glare. _Whatever he does next would decide his fate, and his standing in the kingdom community._ The kadabra mentally prepared himself.

The gallade smiled again. "Hey, calm down there kadabra." He coaxed. "I was just testing you since I knew nothing about you, and trust me, I wouldn't want there to be innocent pokemon dying because of me." His voice was so genuine, it pierced right through the old pokemon.

The kadabra reopened his eyes, malice not present in his current state anymore. "Then you will give it to me?" He asked hopefully.

The gallade hopped back out of the hole, still holding the crystal, he said. "Sorry. I don't want this crystal lost or stolen anytime soon, I will be putting it in a safe place until we reach the kingdom." Before the kadabra could argue with the gallade he quickly added. "Don't worry about me, I'll stick right by ya every step of the way!" He gave a signature looking thumbs up and winked his left eye.

The kadabra was interested in this gallade, then he noticed something strange. "How is it that you have hands? Every gallade I knew only had stubs for hands that can't move at all, but you have long slender five-fingered hands."

The gallade looked down at said hands, then looked back up to the kadabra to give his reasoning. "Like I said before, it's a personal secret of mine."

They stood there for a while longer until the kadabra spoke up. "Why don't we get to the kingdom then? It is a much better idea than waiting around here in this, shrubbery." He stopped to look at the gallade, he was doing something weird.

The gallade waved his free hand up into the air, holding his finger in place for a small bit until it was emanating a purplish-blue aura, he carefully swiped his finger down slowly, leaving a trail of the color behind, he stopped it shortly after he begun, leaving it the size of a pants pocket, it widened a bit, revealing it to be some sort of opened space itself, stars are visible from the small portal.

The gallade placed the crystal inside of the space and closed it by using his finger to reseal it, tracing his hand upwards from the bottom until it disappeared mysteriously, the kadabra was caught in a trance just by viewing it, questions started forming in his head, but he knew they would not be answered by the just-as-mysterious gallade.

The gallade looked at the kadabra with a knowing look, the kadabra seen this and said. "I guess I will be the one to teleport us to the kingdom, I suppose."

He closed his eyes in concentration, five seconds later they were surrounded in a bright white light for half a second until they vanished, bringing the still knocked out scrafty with them to the kingdom in an instant.


	2. Beginning Revelations

A colossal-sized castle that could only be found in fairytales stood towering over the tiny trees, making it a true sight to behold. The castle itself had been built by thousands upon thousands of stone bricks, making it hard for anybody to make it inside without using the huge double doors that was out on the front of the monster place, it appeared that it was made for larger pokemon. It had red rock-tiles that coned around the tops of the stone towers to complete the breathtaking spikey look, very intimidating to those who would dare try to oppose the owners of this big house. It was surrounded by a large layer of stacked stones that acted as a defense for the palace.

All around the front area of the huge home was a castle-town looking place, it was connected by a long courtyard leading to an iron gate from the castle, the gate looked intimidating because of the spikes that was marking its top. It had a gateman guarding the entry point of the foundation to the side, it was a sneasel, he had a dark red handkerchief tied around his neck, though he appeared to be sleeping on the job. He sat on a wooden chair with his arms folded on his chest and his legs crossed, pushing the chair at an angle backwards. He had a snore bubble that grew and shrunk as he breathed through his nose.

*Shwoop!*

The bubble popped as the sneasel was hastily shaken from his slumber and fell backwards on his chair, arms flailing in an attempt to stop himself. He stopped midair suddenly, the sneasel looked up to see an upside down face of a blue gallade.

The gallade smiled. "You should be careful of your surroundings." He tipped the chair back onto its fore-legs, he released his hold on the chair to step back a bit. The sneasel got up as soon as the chair was balanced again, he stared at the sudden stranger with perceiving eyes.

The gateman threw a question at the shiny pokemon threateningly. "Who are you? I don't recall having a shiny gallade a part of this kingdom." He got into a defensive stance, arms up, claws unsheathed from his paws and legs spread wide to intercept anything. He was gritting his teeth.

"Calm yourself Ralph, he means no harm." An old voice croaked up, the sneasel that is now named Ralph looked to where the voice came from, in front of the gate was the same kadabra that teleported them there, beside the old kadabra was a scrafty that appeared to be knocked out on the ground, Ralph raised his brow, sheathing his sharp claws dormant for another time and relaxed.

Ralph closed one of his eyes lazily, the other one being half opened, he held up his head with both of his hands in a resting position. "Whatever ya say, Charly." He said to the kadabra, sounding as if it's a verbal jab to the old pokemon.

The kadabra grew a tick mark on his forehead. "My name is Charles! Charles Chappy! Stop calling me Charly!" He gripped the spoon in his hand tightly.

The gallade piped up. "I think Charly's a good name for you." He said, sounding as if something's been decided.

Charles looked to the gallade instantly. "Oh you be quiet, you!" The gallade smiled brightly, he looked really cheeky to the kadabra at the moment, until he remembered that this gallade was different. He calmed down a bit.

They stood there until Charles regained his composure.

Ralph reopened his eyes to look at the scrafty and gallade. "Who are they?" He half heartedly pointed to both of the them.

Charles perked up instantly. "I can't explain this now, it would just waste more time." The pure psychic type turned to the gallade. "We have to go to the high security cell room." The sneasel was about to speak up but Charles beat him to the punch. "Yes, you can escort us, please carry the scrafty until we get there, he is unconscious right now." Ralph nodded fervently, most likely because he has something to do now.

The sneasel, even with his short size was able to lift up the scrafty with ease, he positioned the pokemon on his shoulder so it was comfortable for him, then he noticed that he was being left behind by the other two, he ran hurriedly to catch up with them. "Wait for me!" He called out to them.

Charles and Ralph walked through the courtyard as if they'd seen it everyday, the gallade on the other hand was taking in the sights from where he walked and looked everywhere. They were walking on a cemented road that had designs of elegant flowers on the edges of the walkway, there was a couple of simple miniature fountains on both sides of the path that spout out water from the top. Each fountain had a legendary pokemon carved out from pure stone, there was meloetta, celebi, shaymin and victini. At the end of the courtyard and before the huge door was a statue that had mew that was carved out of a bigger stone than the rest. Grass was present everywhere where the cement wasn't, it was a healthy green grass color that still has some morning dew on them, it looks like this area was well taken care of judging by the bright colors everything seemed to give off.

"Enjoying the view?" Charles spoke up, snapping the gallade out his sightseeing, he turned to look at the gruff sounding old man and smiled, the kadabra smiled back. "You must be new to the country huh?" Charles said politely.

The gallade nodded in agreement. "I guess you can say that." He chuckled nervously.

The kadabra picked up on his nervousness and waved his spoon around. "Don't be nervous, sport! You basically saved this kingdom from its peril, you are a hero." His voice was gentle towards the unnamed gallade.

They reached the huge door that belonged to the giant castle, the kadabra gave a knock of his spoon on the door and it opened immediately but slowly. They entered its domain silently, it was huge on the inside. There was red and gold everywhere, the banners, the frames to the portraits and paintings, the carpet, the torches and holders, everything was decorated extravagantly, much like that of a prestige decorator.

There was two huge staircases that led to the second level on both sides of the room, circling around the main room. There was five doors in total, one on the top of the large staircases, two were on the same floor that was under and in between the stairs, one on the far right and one on the far left, though the left door was made out of a grey iron door with studs, the other doors were colored red and gold like everything else in the room.

Charles and Ralph made their way to the farthest left door while the gallade was experiencing everything around him, he stopped his gazing and followed them through the door.

As soon as the gallade walked through the door he noticed a huge difference compared to the entrance room, there was a spiraling staircase made completely out of pale grey stones that had torches hung up from the walls within the spiral, all of them placed in separate holes in the walls so they don't get in the way. They made their way down to the bottom.

On the bottom there was a bunch of cells, each cell was boxed completely in iron, it seemed really thick to keep pokemon in, all of them looked smooth and old. It seems that their recent prisoners couldn't break out of it, apparently. There was a couple of pokemon already in some of the cells that are either just sitting on the iron benches that was made for each cell or are currently sleeping.

Charles opened an empty cell with one touch of his spoon, Ralph spent no time dumping the scrafty inside of the cell and shut the door tight, Ralph pushed on the iron doors to make sure it was locked, it was.

However, the gallade suddenly spun his body to face the other side of the area, eyeing the top corner of the room suspiciously, his actions confused the two pokemon, Charles spoke up. "What are you looking at?" The gallade was unmoving.

"We're being watched." The gallade stated in a hushed voice, audible enough for them to hear.

Ralph just snorted. "Oh, that's just Whitney." He said nonchalantly, the gallade relaxed a bit and continued to study the corner. The sneasel piped up again. "She is our psychic sightseer in the kingdom who makes sure no one is invading our lovely home." Ralph held up a claw while explaining.

Charles took down Ralph's arm. "Don't be showing off your claws like that boy!" He scolded the dark type, Ralph uttered a half hearted apology under his breath and Charles just shook his head. "My goodness, the manners on this boy is getting worse." The kadabra sounded exasperated.

The gallade waved his hand once towards the corner, apparently saying hi to this 'Whitney'. He faced the other two pokemon, they were still by the door of the scrafty's iron cell. The gallade started walking up the medieval staircase while speaking. "We better get going. You know, to put the you-know-what in its proper place." Charles and Ralph followed suit.

They were making their way up the spiral stairs when Ralph questioned the gallade. "What is the 'You-know-what' anyways?" He almost tripped on a step after he asked.

Charles sighed. "You will see soon, he said that so the prisoners wouldn't know what he was talking about." The sneasel's face lit up in understanding, but didn't say anything about it.

The group entered the lobby again, the gallade gave up his leading and let the older pokemon guide the way, since he knows this castle's layout more than him. They were led up the closest staircase and through the door on the top of the stairs. They went through many halls that were filled with potted plants that sat on small tables, paintings of old pokemon, and the same red carpet that was really consistent throughout the castle, they finally made it to the throne room.

The first thing the gallade saw was an occupied throne, it was inhabited the same zoroark that he woke up to about a half an hour ago. She looked bored sitting there, she had her arm holding up her head using the armrest of the big chair. The zoroark perked up immediately when she saw the trio, eyes widening, she made her way down the steps of the throne and stopped when she reached them.

Ralph was the first to say something. "Heya, Princess Felicia!" He sounded cheery, as if he's glad to see her.

Felicia was just staring at the gallade for a couple of seconds, then smiled at all of them. "Hi there." Though she looked like she was forcing a smile, the kadabra caught on to her.

Charles stepped up. "Princess, you can't leave the kingdom like the way like you did!" He scolded her, Felicia winced.

She held up her arms in defense. "But I had to find the colored shard! It needs to come back before the other kingdoms know that it's missing!" The zoroark stood up bigger to hold her argument.

The gallade piped up. "You don't need to find it anymore."

Ralph looked surprised. "But why? We need that shard to protect ourselves!" He sounded and looked outraged by the end of his speech, Charles facepalmed.

The kadabra informed the sneasel. "Because we found it already you dolt." Ralph was again surprised, then he figured out what the 'you-know-what' was, his cheeks suddenly grew a tinge of pink as he looked downward.

Felicia looked at the gallade and kadabra for a few seconds, until she asked kindly. "Well? Where is it if I may ask?"

The gallade replied to the princess. "I have it. Can you show me where to put it so I can place it there?" The zoroark nodded and walked up the steps and to the throne chair, the other pokemon followed right behind her. She placed a claw on the headpiece part of the chair and a hidden slot opened, there was a golden steel ring that was supposed to hold something significant, the gallade knew what he had to do next.

The shiny gallade held up his hand, his finger suddenly getting a purplish-blue tinge, he swiped down a short distance, drawing the colors in the air that stayed there even after his finger was done moving, it opened revealing space itself, he pulled out the red colored stone and closed the space with the same finger, his finger went back to its normal color.

Everyone in the room was in awe, they clearly haven't seen anything like this in their lives, minus the kadabra who witnessed it before, but still, it was mystifying. The gallade paid them no attention and placed the red shard on the steel holder, it floated inside of the ring, the small slot was automatically shut when the stone was in its rightful place.

The gallade looked back at the other pokemon, they were all staring at him wordlessly, they stood there for awhile. The gallade coughed, finally snapping them out of their stupor. Felicia was the first to ask him. "You didn't answer my question before, so I will ask again. Who are you?" They were all intrigued instantly, the gallade was still standing by the throne. _They don't even know my name!_ The gallade humored himself.

Before giving his name to them he held up his left hand in a fist near his chin with his knuckles facing out, giving a thumbs up that looked like he was pointing to himself, he closed his left eye and smirked, then, he said it.

"The name's Falx Gale. A lone wanderer who just wants to make the world a better place."

Ralph chucked. "Heh heh, show off!" He nudged Falx playfully with his paw, the shiny pokemon laughed a bit from the sudden fellowship the sneasel demonstrated, Ralph spoke up again. "I think I like you already. My full name is Ralph Little, though don't call me little or else." Ralph put his paws on his hips, shutting his eyes while giving a toothy smile.

The kadabra sighed from the sneasel's performance. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Gale. You've heard my name already, but I'll humor you, it's Charles Chappy." He held his hand out, offering a handshake, Falx took it and firmly shook his hand, although the pokemon was old, he still had a good amount of strength.

Felicia introduced herself next. "My name is Felicia Dragonthorn, princess of the Red Kingdom." She said politely and bowed down onto one of her knees, then said. "You are a hero to this kingdom, if there is any reward you want, we will provide you with it, please speak up." She got up and waited for Falx to decide what he wants.

Falx just smiled. "Not everybody introduced themselves yet." Then looked to the corner of the room. "It's impolite to be observing us without saying something about yourself." Everyone looked at the gallade, then to the area of the room he was looking at, they stared at the spot with him, waiting.

Suddenly, there was a flash of white light that filled the room temporarily, it didn't blind anyone though, the figure that was in the corner of the room finally showed, it was a meowstic, this pokemon was female because of her white fur, she had a dark red bow on her left ear. She walked towards the group at a leisurely pace.

The meowstic stopped before them and looked at Falx, then something talked in their minds, including the dark types. Hello, I'm surprised that you could see my vision-sight ability, nobody can detect it besides you. Who are you really?" Her telepathy sounded rather dull, yet intrigued. "I can't even read you at all."

Charles spoke up. "I couldn't read him either Whitney, either he has some hidden ability or he is a powerful psychic pokemon, that could explain why he could see your vision-sight." The kadabra guessed to the best of his abilities, Whitney just huffed.

The meowstic just shook it off. "Oh well, if he doesn't want to tell me it's alright. My name is Whitney Sabre, I watch over the kingdom with invisible eyes, pleased to make your acquaintance." She twitched her tail.

Falx finally said something. "It's really nice to meet you all." He was in thought for a moment, then turned to Felicia. "Is there any spare rooms for me to stay in?" The female dark type nodded.

Ralph perked up suddenly. "He can bunk with me! I have an extra bed in my room!" He said excitedly, the princess gave him a look, Charles just sighed.

The gallade noticed her look and spoke up. "It's ok, I can room up with him. Having a roommate makes it more fun anyways." The zoroark looked uncertain for a second, then sighed as she let it happen, the sneasel smiled and raised a fist in the air in triumph.

Felicia was unsure of Falx's choice. "Do you not want anything more? We are still in your debt for finding the colored shard when it was lost." Falx shook his head and waved his hand to brush it off.

"It's alright, having a room here is fine for me." The gallade stayed on his decision. "Can you show me where the room is Ralph? I wanna get some shuteye for a while." Ralph nodded quickly and took off out of the throne room in a mad dash, Falx just laughed at his enthusiasm and said goodbye to everyone before taking off for the fast dark and ice type, keeping up with him easily.

They weaved through rooms like it was a race, sometimes interrupting some other pokemon who lived there. "Stop running around like mad pokemon!" A frogadier scolded them as they left a room, they continued running despite receiving a short lecture, ignoring the water types words. They finally stopped at a room that had a dark red door with a nameplate on it, 'Ralph Little'.

Ralph opened the door, there was two beds, both on either sides of the room, there was a table beside each bed, the room itself was easily big enough for the both of them, Ralph jumped onto the bed on the left. There was a window in the middle of the two beds, Falx went up to it and looked through. Outside of the window was a beautiful view on the castle-town, the whole scene had an orange glow, the sun was setting.

Falx laid himself on the bed to the right, claiming it as his, this is where he will sleep from now on. He looked to his roommate, he was fast asleep already. "Must've tired himself out." He said quietly and chuckled to himself.

He laid there for a while, not able to fall asleep yet, then he focused a bit. "I know you're watching me Whitney." He talked telepathically, at first there was no response.

Then it was returned. "You really can see it somehow. I thought you were just paranoid and got lucky finding it."

The gallade just laid there, talking with his mind. "Can I ask you about something?" He changed the subject.

Whitney noticed but didn't mind. "Yeah, sure. Fire away."

"I observed that you all wore some sort of red accessory, does that mean anything?" The gallade sounded genuinely curious.

Whitney didn't answer right away, maybe thinking of a way to word it. "You really ARE new to this country, everyone should know about this. I will tell you anyways I guess. All of the inhabitants must wear a red accessory to let others know what their standing in the Red community is. For example, you seen Ralph and I wear a dark red color right? That represents our authority, like the guardians of the kingdom. Charles wore a blood-red color on his tie, that means he is tied directly to the Dragonthorn family and serves them at their every command as a Butler. The color and the shade are what decides a pokemon's position."

It was a big-winded speech, but Falx absorbed it all regardless of its length. "Thank you Whitney. That's the only question I wanted to ask you." The female psychic accepted the thanks and stopped the link, Falx was still laying on the bed.

He brought his memories forth, reminding him of why he was there in the first place, a different dimension. He thought of what happened before the event when he fell in the river earlier.

Everything was white, there was nothing everywhere he looked. "Where am I?" He asked himself, even though he didn't have the answer.

He was drifting along in the white endless abyss, alone, at least he thought he was until he could feel a presence enter his mind. "You are in my realm, that of which only I reside in." It sounded like a wise woman with a deep voice, he could sense the strong authority that emanated her every word.

He could recognize that telepathy anywhere. "Oh hi! Long time no see! A warning could've been nice though." He spoke with the strange voice as if he knew it, despite not being able to see anything in the vast plains of whiteness. "Can you please tell me what's going on? Unless you just want to talk, that's fine." Nothing was said for a minute.

There was a flash of holy golden light that cut through the white space easily, Falx had to cover his eyes to stop it from blinding him, it only lasted for a couple of seconds. The golden light dissipated into a white and golden figure, a gold aura remains so that it wouldn't blend in to the white background, Falx took no time to use his telepathy. "You sure know how to make an entrance, Rebecca." The gallade smiled as he was able to see the legendary pokemon, Arceus.

The god pokemon floated over to the shiny gallade. "You are still using that mortal name for me." Arceus said as a fact, no sudden emotions at all besides one of formality.

Falx laughed good naturedly. "Yeah, if you can give me a name, then I will give you a name. You look like a Rebecca to me." He gave a thumbs up to the legendary, though she just looked grim at the gallade, Falx noticed the look and stopped.

Falx held up his arms. "If you don't like the name then I won't call you Rebecca anymore." He thought he had upset the Arceus.

But she shook her head once. "It is not the name that worries me. It is the quest that I want, no, need to ask of you to do." Falx lowered his arms, he immediately nodded his head to signal that he is ready for it, she still looked grim, but was looking down this time. "I knew that you would accept it too readily, even if you don't know what it is, that is just who you are as a being."

Falx just smiled, trying to lift the legend's worries. "I owe you a lot, heck, everyone owes you everything they have, you were the one who gave it to us. I want to help you because it will you ease your worries, even if it's only little bit, you deserve it."

Before Rebecca could reason with the gallade he spoke up first. "Let me do this please, I can take it." Falx was serious, very unlike his character, Arceus knew him well, there was no way that he's changing his mind.

She gave up. Instead, Rebecca decided into giving him the layout of the situation, but paused for a moment, getting ready to tell him. "In another dimension there is a land that is nearing war each day, that dimension is closely related to yours, in fact they are connected. If war does happen there would be a tear between universes, they rely on each other to stay balanced and I cannot do anything about separating them or interfering with their affairs." She paused, looking at the gallade to see if he is following, he looked like he hung on every word.

She continued her explanation. "While your world has legendaries keeping the world intact, this particular one uses six crystal artifacts that have insane amounts of power stored in each one, able to keep the whole world balanced since ancient times, these are known in that world as 'Crystal Shards'. They are parts of the same crystal that shattered once the six nations of the world began feuding. Each shard had a distinct color to them, that being red, blue, yellow, grey, black, and white. Every territory taking each shard for their own kingdom whose themes and names revolved around those colors." She paused again, Falx was still unwavering in his attention.

Arceus began once again. "These kingdoms have an alliance in the forms of colors versus shades. Red, Blue, and Yellow have a belief of using the power of all as a government system. Grey, Black, and White believe in the power of one pokemon ruling everything. Their views clashed against each other even though their intentions of peace were clear, many small fights escalated into a worldwide battle, now they think they have no choice but to fight each other for the beliefs they all hold. Even the alliances that was formed are quarreling with each other. Right now they are on the verge of war."

Falx piped up when the alpha pokemon was finished talking. "And you want me to prevent this war from happening, right?" Rebecca nodded.

She spoke formally. "Using force or underhanded means would only worsen the situation, I'm sure you're aware of that." Falx nodded happily, glad that he didn't have to do anything that was uncomfortable for him.

Arceus gave him more background on his mission. "It wasn't always like this. Before, when the shards were United, there was nothing but peace that was spread throughout the lands. Everything was bound together by a legendary, it wasn't me. The legend is one who you are familiar with, the pink and very energetic mew. Mew ruled the whole world by herself for a long time. As unlikely as it seems, but it's true. And when she left she formed the kingdoms so they could remain ordered, however, it led to what we have to handle today." Falx was a bit surprised to find out that one of his friends ruled a whole world in another dimension, then he shrugged it off with his shoulders, realizing that it was not the craziest thing he ever heard.

Rebecca said one last thing about the quest Falx must do. "There is something I must inform to you about, it is the difference between your world and theirs. There are no humans." She said abruptly, the gallade nodded in understanding, seemingly in acceptance.

Rebecca formed a purplish-blue wormhole in the air, a good ways away from Falx so he doesn't get sucked in, she spoke. "If you need any guidance just call me by telepathy, this portal will take you to the land of the colors, good luck."

Falx looked excited. "I love these portals!" He floated to the wormhole and got sucked in while yelling out without telepathy. "WOOOOO!" He got sucked through the portal, falling for five seconds until he could see something that was sparkling below him. "Aaaaah!" He dropped into the water.

He soon resurfaced for air. "Well, that was a fun ride."

He stopped his memories there, he sighed in relief, then promptly fell asleep.


	3. General Virtues

"Don't touch my!" A voice suddenly said, then it lowered into a mumble. "food..."

Falx got up while rubbing his eyes from his recent nap, he looked to the direction of the noise, it was Ralph.

He was still sleeping, snore bubble present again, half of his body was falling off of the bed. Most of the weight of his small frame was on top of the bed had kept him from falling off, though.

The gallade got up from his bed, taking a moment to yawn and stretch. He opened the door to leave and trekked silently out of the door. He didn't want to wake up the sneasel from his sleepy state so he left quietly. Falx made his way through the castle halls, everything being as fancy as ever. He quietly thought to himself if this is what everything would have looked like if there was no humans at all in his life. He finally arrived at the lobby of the kingdom.

Before he could try to open the huge door that led outside a voice in his mind made itself present. "You can't open it?" The voice sounded bored and uninterested. Falx didn't bother to look anywhere besides the door that blocked him from freedom.

"How do I open it then, Whitney?" Falx spoke back using telepathy, he stole a peak in the direction of one of the stairs that were in the room, waiting for an answer.

"You need to be a member of this kingdom to gain access to the entrances and exits here." Whitney stated explicitly. "I cannot be giving you membership since you were only here for a night, even if you gave us our shard back I can't let you run free without a care in the world."

Falx thought to himself for less than a minute until he said. "Does this have anything to do with your red accessories?" He turned around to completely face the stairs.

"Listen, why don't you go ask the princess yourself for these kind of things, she is in her throne room right now." She seemed a little annoyed with all of the questions she received from the shiny gallade. "I'm sure you know the way there, you made it here from Ralph's room that's pretty much on the opposite side of the castle from here anyways." Her communications ceased immediately, leaving no room for argument. Falx shrugged to himself.

He walked up the stairs and through one of the doors on the second level, walking each step based on memory. _Teleporting would be rude, the meowstic still suspects me_ _and_ _I don't want to make it worse._ He thought.

Falx made his way through the hallways like the day before, it was simple so that guests of the kingdom could make their way to the throne room easier. He eventually made it to the aforementioned room where Felicia was currently resided in and entered quietly.

Right when he entered the room he noticed that there was someone there other than the princess, the two appeared to be talking by the throne until they noticed him standing by the doors. Felicia waved for Falx to come over. He walked up the steps to where the other two were standing, that being Felicia and a sandy colored tyranitar, a shiny pokemon.

The tyranitar was a bit bigger than normal when you compare it to its relative species, he had a striped colored badge on his chest that was pure blood red and dark red in color for each stripe, there was also other badges that sat on the other side of his chest. He smirked upon seeing Falx.

"You must be the Radiant Hero! I've heard rumors about you from my colleagues saying that you displayed a huge amount of strength to right what was wrong and returned the red shard to this kingdom!" The tyranitar spoke with a loud yet pleasant voice that demanded authority, unlike arceus' natural voice- the tyranitar's was clearly done intentionally. Falx was taken aback by his description of himself. _A huge amount of strength, to right what was wronged? Well_ _then_ _._ Falx thought to himself, amused.

Felicia decided to chip in. "We were just talking about you, among other things too, but he wanted to meet you right away and here you are! Go ahead, general of the army." She ushered for his introduction.

"I forgot to introduce myself and I got carried away! Hahah! My name is Paean Reliquiae! Pronounced Pee-uhn Ri-lik-wee-ee! Status, general of the army!" He earnestly held out his claws straight towards Falx in signs of a handshake, Falx accepted the handshake readily.

"Falx Gale. Wanderer." He quickly said, they stopped shaking hands.

Paean grew curious. "Wanderer? How many places have you been to? Might I ask?" He moved his arms behind his back, concentrating his attention towards the fellow shiny.

"I've only recently began travelling. This is my first, but I don't know my way around here." Falx simply stated

The tyranitar spoke up. "Well, this kingdom is a nice and peaceful one, there are no enemies here who would hurt us because of our protection!" He puffed up his chest to show off his badges. "I earned these here are for my great efforts in protecting this nation!"

Falx smiled. "Then that makes you a hero to this country as well." Paean smiled as well, revealing his sharp canine teeth.

"I have to leave for now." Paean shuffled his body to face the door, eyes still on Falx. "How about a drink at the bar later tonight at sunset? The place will be Grumpy's pub! It's straight down the road inside Red Castle Town, you can't miss it!" He bowed his head once while looking at Felicia whom also bowed for his departure. He was a big pokemon, but his steps were as silent as a mouse. He left the room, leaving Falx and Felicia alone.

Felicia spoke up quickly. "Sorry about that, he always invites pokemon he likes to drink with him." She lowered her head in sorry for the crude way her own general had been acting, Falx just waved his hand off from the subject, the zoroark held up her head again. "Is there a reason why you're here this early in the morning?"

Falx nodded slightly. "I have a couple of questions I wanted to ask you." Felicia smiled lightly, letting him know that she is ready. "Okay, how do I open the doors of this kingdom?"

"It takes the power of the red crystal to gain the ability to go through the kingdoms walls, to be accepted as a member of the kingdom you must inhabit at least a small part of its power, which Is easily gained by having the stones' favor." She looked towards the throne. "It's like the crystal is alive somehow, letting only those who it deems worthy of protecting this kingdom."

She continued. "Once you have a bit of its power inside of you, just try to fill up the door with that same power and it's open." She gestured with her hand signaling that the question was fully answered, Falx nodded.

Felicia waited a bit, waiting for Falx's second question. "How is it like living here for you?"

Felicia smiled. "It's like a dream, there is a lot of pokemon to talk to so it almost never gets boring. There is also a place I go to when I want to be free of the princess' duty for a while. You know where it is since you slept in it." Felicia giggled, Falx sheepishly scratched his neck and began smiling. "Now, your next question please."

Falx continued smiling. "Are you single?"

Felicia took a bit to process the question, then immediately started blushing red and avoided eye contact for a bit. "W-w-what d-do you m-mean by that?" She spurted out nearly incoherently.

Falx was confused, he tried to explain for himself. "I wanted to know if there was a prince of the Red Kingdom, I find it hard to believe for someone like you to not have one by now." Felicia just deepened her blushing, believing that he was complimenting her.

Falx just thought to himself. _I mean, I heard that princess' are married when they are teens. She looks around my_ _age, 21. Just a thought I guess. If I were to say that out loud she would probably get offended, or maybe_ _just think that I'm weird because I don't know their traditions, oh well._

"I-I got to do s-something, bye!" She said, abruptly ending their conversation and quickly made her way to a hard to see door on the side of the throne room. She opened the door revealing what looked like a balcony, she shut the door.

"Wonder what that was about?" Falx said quietly to himself.

Falx left the throne room satisfied with the answers he got, he casually made his way to the lobby of the foundation. Deciding to put the information he got to the test he held out his hand towards the huge door, it was cool to the touch. The door suddenly opened a tiny crack, enough for him to walk through with some difficulty.

Falx could hear a subtle laughter in his head. "You can barely open up the door?" Falx ignored her distracting laughing, then attempted at opening the door again, it inched open a little bit more and stopped again. The laughing in his head started to get more louder. He attempted once more and it finally opened all the way for him, eventually and slowly. The laughing started slowing as well. "Geez! The crystal must've given you so little of its power that it's pathetic!" Whitney sounded more alive than her usual self.

Falx chuckled a bit and sweatdropped at her sudden show of emotions. "I'll get it down sooner or later... Anyways, see you later tonight." His mind went empty of any pokemon but himself.

Falx hopped down the steps and into the walkway with the fountains, he made his way to the gate where he spotted Charles who was currently working at the station. Charles was standing up despite there being a chair. "Hi Charly! Good morning!" Falx said happily, having Charles to turn around to greet the eager fighting psychic type.

"Good morning there, Mr. Gale." Charles croaked out, smiling. "Such brilliant weather we're having today." He folded his arms behind his currently arching back.

Falx looked skyward, shielding his eyes with his arms so he doesn't get blinded by the bright sun. It was steadily rising from between two of the castles' towers on the right side. It made the place look enchanting, reminding him that this was not the world he was used to, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

Charles was busy studying the gallade while Falx was looking at the castles image, he was a strange pokemon that suddenly appeared and serviced their Red Kingdom with no discrimination at all. It's not unheard of for pokemon to help each other, but if any greedy 'mon got their hands on the red shard or any other shard there would be dire consequences, near infinite power kind of consequences.

Charles adjusted his gaze to see his face and froze, his eyes were glowing pure red despite not looking directly at the sun, in a cool-smooth-diamond sort of way. This 'Gale' was frighteningly mysterious, just who exactly is he?

"It really is beautiful today." Falx breathed in slowly and then out, he paused for a bit. "Anyways, is it your turn to watch the gate?" Charles snapped himself out of it before Falx turned to face him.

"Ralph is a really heavy sleeper, boy doesn't even get up at lunchtime. His dark typing it makes it hard for me to do anything about it." The kadabra sighed. "I didn't get to learn miracle eye during my younger years so I've been saving up for a move tutor lesson."

Falx seemed deep in thought. "I knew of a guy who was a move tutor. I watched him every now and then, even if I couldn't use the move. One of his lessons was about miracle eye, he taught me a lot of moves just in case if I wanted to become a move tutor myself someday." He held up a finger. "I could teach you if you want, I remember how it goes as light as day."

Charles eyes widened. "You knew a professional move tutor? They are expensive and are hard to come by! Who is this tutor?" The old psychic type was definitely surprised by this, Falx stepped back to avoid crashing into Charles when he moved forward.

"Yeah, he's not around anymore though. He wanted to stay secretive 'till his death so I can't tell you his name. He was a very surreptitous 'mon, sorry." Falx explained to the older pokemon as much as he could give.

"Sorry to hear that." Charles calmed down a bit and stepped back up to give Falx some room. "So how much are you willing to teach me the move, Mr. Gale?" He decided to change the subject.

"If you could teach me how to use a bit of the crystals power, I will teach you miracle eye." Falx negotiated. "I want to be able to learn the ins and outs of this power so I could control it better."

Charles looked surprised yet again. "That's it?" He grew a bit suspicious. "There's no fine print or anything like that right?" The gallade shook his head. "Are you sure? This isn't a fair trade at all on your side, controlling the crystals' power is way easier than learning a new move." Charles was hesitant on this deal.

"It's fine." Falx assured the old psychic. "Miracle eye is a necessity for pure psychic types, just knowing that you went without it for all these years shows me how strong you are." Falx smiled happily. "Especially when protecting the royal family as their close Butler."

The kadabra smiled as well. "Then it's a deal."

Falx turned his body to look at the gate. "I can start teaching you tomorrow, I want to explore this area first before doing anything else." Charles nodded, then lifted his spoon towards the gate and it opened inwards towards them. Falx waved goodbye to Charles when the gate was fully open and left the castle courtyard. The gate immediately closed behind him, but he continued down the road to Red Castle Town.

The road was a dry and brown dirt road that led to the stony smooth tiles of Red Castle Town, the sight was extraordinary, there was houses on top of houses that bird pokemon seemed to be living in. They were swooping around the whole town, many were carrying bags of all sizes with them. The lower houses were of all kinds of sizes to fit the many kinds of pokemon who lived here. Every street of this town was bustling with all kinds of activities from locals and guests of all kinds. Merchants, citizens and visitors were walking, flying or crawling around trying to sell goods to make a living.

Falx made his way around by walking in the crowd of pokemon, going with the flow like a wave, switching crowds when he got to a dead end. The town was huge, it took him all morning to explore half of the town, he took a break on a bench in a not so busy road.

Falx recalled a few things from his recent journey. "They sell and trade a lot of things here. Evolutionary stones, Items, herbs, tm's, knickknacks, charms, liquor, berries, medical supplies, and food in the form of either merchants selling them or restaurants." He talked under his breath. "Although the pokemon were friendly, there was some underground activity that was going on in the city that no one knows about, like that scraggy's conversation."

He recalled the recent events of a scraggy, the scraggy was speaking to another pokemon that was hooded in black, Falx noticed them when he was learning about the town, they were partway into an alley by some merch stands who put all their attention towards selling their goods.

The scraggy was obviously talking about something he shouldn't be, he would frequently look at his surroundings as if he was trying to spot something that would threaten him. Falx drew in closer without raising any suspicion by pretending to buy something from that stand closest to the suspicious duo, he concentrated on both masking himself and eavesdropping on the pokemon.

He could hear the scraggy talk in a near whispering voice. "He didn't arrive at the appointed time, he must have been caught." Falx didn't try to look at them since he would risk being found out, the scraggy looked around once and then continued. "He was our fastest runner, there was no way he could have been captured. Unless it was the work of an unknown mercenary, the plan was perfect."

He heard the hooded pokemon speak with a feminine voice. "Obviously not perfect enough, we don't accept failures, but you have one more shot to pull this off. We will lend you some of our strongest pokemon. Don't mess up this time, unless you want to be erased from existence." The voice was dripping with venom, like it could perform the threat itself right now.

The scraggy gulped. "We'll get it this time, for sure." The scraggy looked around another time, then they both split ways into the crowd of pokemon, immediately blending into their surroundings.

He stopped his memories there and started to talk to himself. "They were planning something bad, I know it." He spoke near silently. "They were obviously talking about that fast 'mon I stopped before, that scrafty. Their main goal is clear to me, but is that all they want?"

Then something occurred to him. "How does Whitney not know who stole the crystal? She would have been able to see and stop the scrafty from stealing it." His head was swarming with solutions and theories, but they all had holes in them, something wasn't right.

Falx sighed, he would just have to wait and see. He settled with protecting the kingdom at all costs, he could tell from the way they talked that it would not happen today, they would have to regroup and come up with a plan, not a job they could do overnight. Falx still kept his guard up nonetheless, anything could happen. "Nothing's impossible. Judging by experience." He said out loud this time.

It was a little after noon when Falx started to explore the other parts of the town. He didn't have any of their currency, this world's money was different from his own. Falx's world used pokedollars while this one has 'dollars' on its own. Falx thought it would be weird if they did have 'pokedollars' here, it'd be the same as 'humandollars' in a world with only humans.

From what he could tell, items like a single pecha or cheri berry are sold for twenty dollars each, exactly like his own worlds' pokedollars, which seem to be worth the same thing. He assumed that they were completely similar in all besides name and look.

Its appearance was small sized circled coins with holes in the middle of them by half their size, the colors separated each coins' worth.

He asked a passerby who informed him of the coins, albeit the pokemon was surprised by his lack of common knowledge, unsurprisingly. He got out that Bronze was ten dollars, silver was twenty, gold was fifty, platinum was one hundred, and an bar of platinum was one thousand, which was hard to come by even for a successful merchant. This world had an abundance of the minerals so they weren't worth as much as they are in Falx's world.

Falx mapped out the entire town by the time the sun was right in the middle of the sky, it was three hours past noon when he accomplished this. He was thinking about a weird building that intrigued him earlier, he was on his way there now when a yellow and orange carriage pulled by two rapidash's made its way towards the castle. With his curiosity piqued he decided to hold off going to the building until he found out who was in that carriage, it looked like it was made for royalty by its intricate and showy design.

He knew where the carriage was going so he took detours around the general area while following it, deciding to look at all the merchandise around him so he wouldn't get bored from stalking the transportation. The truth is that he grew suspicious of everything that seemed secretive, he went window shopping to prevent his paranoia from growing.

The rapidash drawn carriage eventually made it to the gate, Ralph opened the gate to let them in. Falx had to stop at an alleyway and peek around the corner, nobody aware of his own suspicious activity. "Guess I have to go ethereal then." Falx said, he vanished almost instantly.

The world changed drastically in his eyes, everything was giving off shades of blue that defined the features of every surface or thing that was around him. The pokemon continued their day as if nothing happened, at least to them. They were unaffected by the change having the same colors as their normal species, only now they looked see-through. He couldn't hear a thing though, not a single voice or footstep could be heard besides his own.

He walked out of the alley and into the crowd of pokemon, he walks right through each one. They disappear before he touches them as if they didn't exist, maybe even vise-versa. They reappeared when he is not in their space anymore.

He made it to the gate and swiftly jumped over it and gracefully landed on the other side in one swift motion. He continued to walk past Ralph who didn't seem to notice him at all, Falx was walking beside the carriage until it reached before the huge doors of the kingdom.

The doors of the carriage opened, revealing a mawile that stepped down the vehicles steps, she had a yellow and orange crown that sat on top of her head. Falx could tell her gender a little bit by natural instinct, but mainly from the look of the crown and its feminine looks. He recalls that Felicia has the same kind of crown that's pure red instead of yellow and orange, she never uses it from what Falx could remember.

The carriage spawned one more pokemon that seemed to be the mawile's bodyguard, it was a strong looking espeon. This espeon was female, she wore a pure yellow bowtie around her neck. They all made their way to the castles double-doors. The doors appeared to open on their own, he guessed it was courtesy of Whitney and the company went inside, Falx was close behind them.

They were all met with Felicia, Charles, and Paean who were standing in the middle of the room, Felicia was finally wearing her crown.

Falx couldn't hear them but he could see that they're talking to each other. They talked for a bit until Felicia gestured for everyone to follow, probably to a place more private, they all walked to the throne room, all of them not knowing that they have one more pokemon with them.

Everyone followed Felicia to the throne room. Once they reached their destination they all settled down on comfortable looking chairs that were definitely prepared beforehand, all the chairs fitting each pokemon who were present.

Falx was standing right in front of the closed doors. Before they started talking again Falx began concentrating hard. It took him no time at all to begin hearing everything around him again, he was still in the strange realm, yet was able to hear everything around him in detail, more so than normal hearing is able to do. It put a bit of strain on him doing this, as he still needed to concentrate on hearing past the realm without being detected.

Felicia was the first to begin talking. "We are all present to discuss some important matters that I'm sure we are all aware of." She sounded warped, it's as if Falx was listening through a thin layer of water, yet its sound is audible and mysteriously clear.

The mawile spoke with impatience. "I'm tired of beating around the bush, just explain why we're here." She leaned her head on her arm stemming from her chair, she sounded elegant despite her actions.

Charles piped up. "Relax Princess Maria, patience is a virtue." He coaxed. "This is very well important for a coming-to-be ruler such as yourself."

The mawile just sighed as if she had to deal with this everyday and she was sick of it. Her bodyguard just sat there completely silent, observing what was going on around her as if she was disconnected from the world while wearing a completely expressionless look.

Everyone was silent for a moment until Paean spoke up in his loud voice. "Well! Let's get down to the matter at hand shall we!" His voice filled the room completely, Falx had to tone it down so he wouldn't go deaf.

Felicia seemed incredibly patient despite what was going on, she talked with confidence."Anyways, there is a problem with our ties to the other kingdoms, they are not giving us as much information as they used to. They have since been uncooperative because of our quarrelling nations, they have lost respect for us because of the little fights that would occur in each kingdom. To me, it is not anyone's fault that it happens, it is the prejudice of some bad pokemon that caused bigger problems for everyone because they were influenced by their own pride towards their own kingdoms." She stopped herself to see if everyone's following. "I fear that we may not be seeing eye-to-eye with each other. It has since been that way for a long time, but it's getting worse with each day now more than before. The worst case scenario is possibly being a potential war on the rise."

Everyone had sunk in the words that Felicia was giving them, they all had faces of horror on each of them minus the espeon who was hard to read, no one wanted a war, final. Falx knew that this was not false, he wore a solemn look on his face.

Maria was the first to react. "But, there can't be a war! War is terrible beyond imaginable! Nobody wants a war to happen!" She talked with more emotion, her words were obviously true to herself.

Felicia spoke again. "I said war is possible, there is a low chance of it even happening." Her voice was calming.

Felicia's calm voice relieved the tension of those in the room besides Falx, he knew about it more than they did. He really does feel bad that he has to hide the truth from everyone, so he spoke out loud even though nobody can hear him, to himself. "This is my curse, my burden to bear with alone."

Suddenly, a voice interrupted their discussion, it was shouting from behind the door where Falx was. "Sorry I'm late guys! I accidentally went back to sleep and now I'm here!" The doors behind Falx popped open and threw him into the air from the pure force of it. He landed on his feet using quick cat-like-agility and stood in a straight up position in front of the throne, which was pretty far away.

Falx got a quick look at the door, but since he can't recognize anyone because of the sound difference in this reality he had to see who it was, it was Ralph of course.

Falx sighed in disappointment. "That's the drawback of ethereal mode. Objects around you are like unstoppable and immovable forces, they could crush me easily if I don't watch out. No matter how strong you are you can't move anything at all, even a small leaf is impossible to move while in here." He continued to talk out his frustrations. "I have to stand close to somebody because once they touch the object it is considered to be 'them', which means I could go through it as long as it's small." He weirdly explained the gimmicks of his ability to no one in particular.

Charles grew irritated at the sneasel. "Calm down boy! You could have hurt somebody with that kind of force!" Falx sweatdropped at the irony.

Felicia kindly informed Ralph. "The meeting is over anyways, there is no need to accompany us any further."

Ralph was instantly sad. "I missed the meeting?" He looked like he would be in tears any moment now. "But I woke up early so I could go, then fell asleep because it was so early." He was saying this mostly to himself, but everyone heard him anyways. Nobody wanted to intervene with the downtrodden pokemon.

Felicia waved the other party off. "I hope we can come together again like this in the future with better news, Maria Mellowstone, Violet Glaive, thank you for coming here today." Felicia bowed to the two pokemon as they left wordlessly, as to not stay any longer with the awkward sneasel.

Now it was only the three of them that are currently present if you don't include Falx, Paean piped up loudly. "Don't be so down sport! If you were any older you could drink with me and the Radiant Hero!" He talked to the miserable Ralph with the respect as if he was a kid.

Ralph didn't like the treatment one bit. "I'm not a kid! I'm eighteen! I'm legal drinking age you old man!" He shouted angrily, completely forgetting that he was supposed to be sad. Paean laughed heartily while Charles just facepalmed.

Paean turned to Felicia. "You could come with us too if you wanted! Your highness is already twenty! Oh does the time fly right by! I remember when you were but a wee zorua this big!" He held up his claw to measure from the floor to the middle of the calf of his leg.

Felicia was thinking for a small while, ignoring Paean. She spoke up. "I guess I don't have any urgent business or duties in a while, I don't know if I should though."

Ralph pitched in. "Why not join? We could learn more about Falx Gale- The Radiant Hero!"

Felicia was suddenly suspicious. "Were you the one who spread around that rumor?" She kind of knew what his reaction would be.

"Yup! I told everyone about it!" Ralph puffed out his chest in pride. "Falx is the hero that everyone should know about!"

Charles immediately croaked out. "But you were the one who suspected Falx from the beginning, remember?" Ralph deflated instantly and went red.

A flash of white non-blinding light filled the room, a meowstic appeared beside Felicia when the light subsided as fast as it came. She didn't say anything, but everyone else seemingly heard her telepathy besides Falx of course, he wasn't supposed to be there in the first place during the meeting.

Felicia responded to the 'silent' psychic type. "Good, we don't want to deal with any leaks of this information any time soon." Felicia nodded her head once to Whitney. "You are hereby allowed a dozen free berries as thanks for your assistance today." Whitney put on a tiny smile as she was given some tickets from Felicia.

Ralph's mood dramatically changed again into excitement. "What do I get princess? A kiss for my assistance?" He began making smooching faces while inching closer to Felicia, she just pushed him away by the forehead to get some of her personal space back.

Felicia began walking out of the throne room. "It's almost time to meet up with Falx, there's only a couple of hours until sunset arrives." She left the door open as she walked through the exit.

Paean perked up. "I'm glad you are also tagging along with us princess! It will no doubt ease your tension!" Paean started walking behind her, leaving right after.

Ralph hurried along with them. "I'm coming along with you too!"

Charles just wisely ignored the sneasel. "I will see you later Whitney." He said as he patiently left the area and then gently closed the door with his psychic power.

Whitney flashed out with her coupons in hand and a smile on her face, obviously happy from the free food she just earned. Falx decided to leave as well and teleported outside of the gate before anyone else could make it there. He made his way to a random empty alley before shifting back from ethereal mode, having everything gain color like how it's supposed to be, naturally.

"I still got time to kill." Falx leaned against the alley wall. "Guess I could go check out that building-" he was cut off by a loud shriek of a pokemon followed by fast footsteps. Falx stretched out his limbs and bounced lightly off the wall.

"Never a dull moment here, huh?" He said, then began walking slowly while still stretching towards the direction of the hurried footsteps, going to that weird place would have to wait for a bit. _Seems like things are getting a_ _little_ _bit interesting._ He thought to himself.


	4. Exploration Date

A cry of a small pokemon could be heard. "He stole my pendant!" A female voice cried.

A moment ago, a whimsicott was just strolling through the streets of Red Castle Town peacefully, until someone rudely knocked the whimsicott over in a hurry. She recovered and noticed that her necklace was gone, thus the hunt began.

The whimsicott tried to make a mad dash to the perpetrator, but the winds today are strong and it blew the female away. She struggled against the winds until a gale suddenly blew her into the right direction, it mysteriously lifted both her and her confidence, there was the warm feeling that coincidentally supported her in the air.

The whimsicott was high in the air from the gales' boost until she could clearly see that the runner was wearing a dark brown cloak, whoever it was they were fast. She was gliding just as fast as the thief was, but they were getting to the end of the large town too quickly. The whimsicott got anxious as they neared the end of the line, she knew that the winds outside of Red Castle Town was too unexpected and hard to read, making it very hard to rely on especially when she has a thief to catch.

The gale behind her started dying as they reached the final house. The cloaked individual faded off into the distance making off with not only the whimsicott's pendant, but also the hope of ever getting it back. She doesn't even know what he or she look like! The whimsicott grew immensely sad as she couldn't deny that it was gone forever, tears marked her face freely as she sobbed to herself.

Meanwhile, the thief had safely entered a Grove. The being smirked under the dark hood, but it quickly turned into a scowl once it looked into its clawed palm that held a smooth rock, a low dark voice emanated from the dark brown coat. "What kind of joke is this!?" The male sounding voice then threw his cloak off, revealing an obscured shadowy figure that looked like shadow itself. "So I wasn't seeing things. Something blue... It was too fast for me to see who or what it really was. However, I'll find you. I'll remember this! I WILL get you back!" His voice grumbled out loud, echoing across the vast space around him and throughout the Grove, but it all fell on deaf ears.

The whimsicott was in a stalemate. The wind was quiet and almost in a stilled motion, cries from the weeping pokemon could be heard by the other houses near her despite being not loud at all.

A gentle whistling wind gushed at her and stopped her misery temporarily. She turned around to see a blue gallade who made his way to and stood in front of her. "Yo! You dropped this when you got knocked over by that rude pokemon. Could have at least said sorry though." The gallade held out his hand with the pendant in his palm, it was a small glittering see-through crystal attached to a black woven string.

The whimsicott sobbed once more, she brought her arm up to wipe away the tears that laced her face. "Thank you." She said, trying to right herself again. "I don't know what I would've done if I were to lose it."

The gallade could sense the distress from the whimsicott. "That must be really important to you then." He stated, the fairy type simply nodded her head while holding the pendant close to where her heart is. She tried putting it on, only to find that the string was snapped. It almost hit the ground, but the gallade caught it in time. "It seems that the string was pulled apart from when you fell down earlier. I can fix this easily if I had some sewing supplies, do you have any?"

The whimsicott nodded her head at the kind shiny. "Who are you?" She asked, curious about the pokemon who was kindly assisting her, she knew she didn't know such a unique gallade in her life.

The gallade rested his hands on his hips and smiled. "Falx Gale. I'm new around here. What's your name?"

The whimsicott floated up happily. "My name is Lucy, Lucy Luis." She was glad that she was able to get back her necklace AND meet someone who treated her kindly. "My place is over this way, it has the things we need."

Lucy and Falx made their way to the other side of the town together. Falx would sometimes have to hold Lucy's hand to keep her from blowing away. She got blown away from nearly every gust of wind, so much so that Lucy didn't let go the fourth time she almost blew away, she said that it was better than having her halfway down the road. Falx agreed with her and held her hand for the rest of the way.

Although really, her real intentions were that she felt safe when she was close to the gallade, she was also feeling a sense of security from him that didn't include his protection from the strong wind currents today. It was like she could trust him with her life if it was at risk, that's the kind of vibe she was sensing from Falx. They only met a minute ago, but his presence felt natural to her, almost as if they've known each other for a long time.

They were almost upon the castle until Lucy told him that they were at their destination. Falx looked to where she was pointing with her free hand, it was a drinking place called 'Grumpy's'. Falx nodded and led her inside, opening some western styled 'cowboy' doors in the process and walked into the pub.

Falx noticed that, upon entering, everything was properly cleaned. It looked like a bar alright, but he noticed that it was also not empty. "Hey! Falx! Over here!" That voice belonged to Ralph obviously, Falx turned his head to find that he was with some company. Ralph, Paean, and Felicia was sitting at a table together, they got here quite early since it was only hour until sunset.

Falx walked to their table, still holding onto Lucy's hand. "Hey guys. What's up?" He noticed that Felicia looked a bit unhappy when she saw him.

Paean looked like he was in bliss. "Hey hero! Who's that young lady you're holding hands with? Your lover? Bwahahah!" He had a mug in his hand and a careless smile on his face, yup, he's totally drunk.

Lucy's face lit up to intense shades of pink. "L-l-love. Lover?" She squeaked out. "I-I only just met him!"

Felicia just averted her eyes, she looked irritated if you look closer, nobody noticed though as they were all focused on Falx and Lucy. Falx decided to say something. "Yeah, just a bit over five minutes ago."

Ralph wasn't convinced at all. "But why are you two holding hands then? You're doing it right now!" He pointed to their hands with his claw hysterically.

Falx just laughed at his accusation, catching everyone off guard in doing so, including Felicia. "It's so she wouldn't get blown away by the wind. I guess I forgot to let go when I saw you guys." He started rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. He let go of Lucy's hand in the process, having her drop to the ground slowly. Everyone's suspicions dropped instantly after hearing Falx say that, trusting the shiny pokemon.

Felicia exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding. She wondered what was going on with her, she wasn't sick or tired, what was it?

Paean snapped Felicia out of her thinking. "You should've said so earlier! Someone, was really worried about having you taken away by someone else! Bahahah!" Nobody knew what he was going on about, the majority ignored him thinking it was the drink that was talking, he didn't notice that they did though, unsurprisingly. Falx thought about what he said, but didn't understand him one bit.

Lucy jumped up towards Paean when she seen that he was about to order another drink. "Paean! You know that you're not supposed to be drinking this much." Everyone was caught off by this.

Ralph perked up. "Do you two know each other?" He asked the two in question. Paean drunkenly nodded.

Lucy exhaled dreadfully. "Yeah, I know this guy. I work here as a waitress and he's a regular here, especially since his drunken self is painfully too friendly. Sometimes it's a bit much for me to handle him." She waved her arms in the air as she explained.

Paean piped up a bit too loudly. "Lucy has been single for as long as I can remember! When the Radiant Hero came in while looking friendly with her I thought it was too good to be true!"

Lucy just huffed at the old general. "You are too you know! You didn't even get married yet and you're forty-eight, so speak for yourself!" She crossed her arms in resentment.

Paean held up a shaky claw. "I'm the general of the army! I have no need for love when I have a whole nation to protect!" He let his arm drop on the table, making a loud clang in the process, then his emotions took a sudden u-turn. "Ahhhh! Who am i kidding?! I'm too lonely to get with someone! And besides, there is no woman for me who is strong enough to take my side!" He threw a fist in the air. "A fine woman would stand by my side through thick and thin! She would have to-" Lucy pulled Falx away from the table, Paean didn't seem to notice and continued talking to whoever was listening.

Lucy brought him behind the counter. "My boss isn't here right now, but it's fine for you to come behind the counter." She brought him to a hallway with a bunch of doors, they went through the door on the far end of the hallway.

Inside of the room was a bed, a wooden nightstand, a bookshelf filled with books and some cute stuffed dolls scattered throughout the room giving it a personal, yet girlish touch.

Lucy started to fidget with her hands and began swinging her body side to side, showing some discomfort. "This is the first time I had a boy in my room other than my boss." She blushed mildly in embarrassment.

She looked up to see Falx's reaction, he was smiling while looking at the many things that stood out. "It looks like it's a comfortable place to live in." She smiled at his answer, then silently sighed happily in satisfaction.

Falx turned around to face Lucy. "Where is the sewing supplies?" He said as he held out the clear crystal pendant.

Lucy gasped. "Oh! I forgot about it. Wait one second while I go get it." She left the room, leaving Falx to stand there. He could hear things being moved and dropped in the other room.

She came back holding the box on top of her head, Falx lifted it off and set it on the bed while sitting down in the process, Lucy jumped on the bed as well. He brought out the pendant and laid it down on the bed, then opened the box to find exactly what he needed; Needles, threads of multiple colors, pins, a measuring tape, scissors, and other sewing notions. He quickly got to work.

His fingers were very quick as he re-threaded the necklace and his precision showed nothing short of amazing. Lucy was astounded that he knew how to sew so good, there was hardly any pokemon who knew how to sew because clothing was hardly needed anywhere besides repairing or creating accessories and dolls like the ones in her room. He decided to make small talk while double checking the measurements. "Do you sew your own dolls?"

Lucy nodded despite not being looked at. "Yeah, my mother taught me how to sew when I was young. I can't do it as good as her though."

She seemed a bit down, Falx noticed this and spoke up. "They were very well done, your mother taught you well." She shifted her eyes from his hands and looked at Falx's face. "They look really cute." He smiled at her, stopping his actions temporarily.

Her heart skipped a beat, she'd swear that his eyes were shining right into her. She was so entranced by him that he finished sewing up the damage that was on the pendant. "There, brand spanking new I'd say." Falx was happy with his work, then cleaned everything up by putting the notions in the box.

He shifted his body to hover just above the dazed whimsicott, snapping her out of the trance, she looked at him and blushed by their close distance to each other. He worked his hands around her, she was looking directly into his eyes, her thoughts shutting down completely. She was caught in the moment, leaning closer to Falx inch by inch, eyes soft and gentle. Lucy was moving despite something screaming at her insides.

"How do you like your patched up necklace?" Falx snapped her out of her trance again, completely this time. She quickly backed up until she slowly fell off of the bed. "Hm?" Was his reaction, it was as if he didn't notice anything at all.

Lucy laughed nervously. "Thank you for fixing my necklace. "She got up and inspected the work. "Wow, I probably would've never noticed that this was broken in the first place." She said, happy with his work as well.

Falx smiled. "Then I guess my work here is done. I gotta go back to my friends, I promised that I would hang out with them here." Lucy nodded happily. Falx left her room while Lucy lifted the box on her head to put it away.

Falx walked down the hallway and made his way to the table where the others were. He could hear them talking about something, mainly Paean though.

"-and that's what makes the perfect woman for me!" Paean practically yelled.

Ralph looked bored. "Now that takes 'having standards' to a whole other level." He let his head fall to the table and shut his eyes, imitating the move 'roost' it seems, his technique was complicated and intricate.

Felicia noticed his presence and looked in his direction with desperation. "There you are Falx- The Radiant Hero! Look Paean! There he is!" She gestured in Falx's direction while looking at Paean.

"Ahhh! There you are my *Hic* Hero! Cheers to the boy in blue!" He held his drink in the air and made a clicking noise with his mouth, making it seem like he's cheering with someone, then he downed it all in one fluid and practiced motion, as if he'd done this for a living.

Falx raised a brow. "What happened when I was gone?"

Ralph lifted his head. "He was talking about the same thing as when you left! You're lucky. You should've taken me with you." He started to sulk, despite being old enough to be a young adult.

Felicia piped up. "I learned a lot about females from a males' point of view. "Then she looked down sadly. "I wish I hadn't." Falx didn't quite understand what she was talking about, but he pitied her anyways.

Paean raised his voice. "Let's go for a couple of rounds everyone! My treat!" He got into a fit of laughter, all jolly as can be.

Falx shrugged his shoulders. "Why not? We have all night to do this, so why not start now?" Everyone agreed and surrounded the front ordering table to have whimsicott take their orders.

Falx only wanted to have a couple of light drinks, but somewhere in between Paean thought it wasn't cutting out for him and ordered their strongest drinks for him. Since Falx was already drinking he thought he should at least try one.

Then he ordered a second strong one, then a third, fourth, fifth. He stopped counting there and went with the flow, everyone was having a great time so he didn't think it was so bad.

They continued through the night either talking to each other or playing card games. Ralph decided to make things more interesting, playing a game called truth or dare. Seems pretty harmless at first glance so everyone got in on it.

Ralph called out. "Okay! The rules are *hic* simple. If you don't do or complete a dare then we all *hic* think of a punishment for you to do. You are limited to three truths, no asking *hic* the same pokemon more than one question. Your turn is over when you issue a dare *hiccup*. Let's play!" He said, it was clear that he drank a lot, probably so fast that he got the hiccups.

Falx rushed out. "Heheh. Then you start it off Ralph!" He cheered with his drink playfully.

Ralph gave off a half smile. "Okay den, *hic* Paean! Truth, What's your biggest pet peeve?" His speech turned lazy. He took a sip from his bottle. The smell of booze was really strong in the air, including everyone else who was there, good thing they were too drunk to tell.

Paean thought his hardest for a minute. "Hmmm. I would have to say cowards! They run like no tomorrow once they know they've lost! Hahahah!" Everyone else laughed because they were influenced by the drink, otherwise no one would be laughing at a crudely made joke.

Once everyone settled down Ralph began once again. "Now! *hic* Felicia. Hmmm. How 'bout truth, have you ever had a *hiccup* crush on someone? If you have, was it *hic* me?" Paean gave his trademark jolly laugh while Falx took another sip of his drink.

Felicia looked at the currently drinking Falx, then at Ralph. "W-well, I d-don't know if I d-do or n-not, but it's n-not you o-of course." Her stuttering was bad, but everyone could understand it like they had perfected the language themselves.

Ralph continued his turn. "Well, you're definitely not being *hic* truthful. I can tell you have a *hiccup* crush on me." He said with confidence, at least what little he had until Felicia glocked him on the side of the head with a nearby empty bottle. "Hey! Princess' are not supposed to resort to violence!" She must've hit the hiccups right out of him, Felicia just gulped down the rest of her nearly empty drink.

Ralph took a bit to recover. "Well, whatever I guess." He noticed Falx at the corner of his eye. "Hey Falx! Truth, are you even from this world at all?" Felicia and Paean perked up as much as a drunk can possibly do, they were curious about this strange question.

Falx took another sip of his drink. "Not at all." He said as he smiled at him drunkenly.

Ralph was surprised. "Woah! That's pretty cool actually."

Ralph suddenly got excited, forgetting what had just happened rather instantly. "It's dare time now!" He shouted out. "I dare Falx to walk with only his hands around this table ten times!"

Falx stood up from his chair. "I take ye as a challenge!" He got on to his hands and kicked his feet up, getting his lower body off of the ground and into a handstand. He started to make laps with ease.

Paean, Felicia and Ralph just laughed their heads off as he was able to complete the challenge easily. This went on for the rest of the night until they could party no longer. They all crashed in the pub when they finished their game, getting a nights rest while losing the effect of drunkenness they all displayed that night.

Falx opened up his eyes, he got up and instantly regretted it.

He was having a hangover...

He sat up while withstanding the pain. Falx noticed that he was on a bed in some room, there were other beds that had Ralph and Paean on them, who had their own. They were still asleep.

He guessed that Felicia was in another room so she would be more safe, maybe she would be, since he couldn't remember the things he said and did last night.

This was his first time drinking and then experiencing a hangover so this was all new to him, his stomach felt like he was eating rocks last night, he wondered if he actually did.

An idea struck his mind, he got up and left the room. Falx was in the same hallway he seen last night, meaning they were all still in the pub. Falx walked out of the hallway and was met with another pokemon, it was an ivysaur.

The ivysaur noticed him. "Well, looks like the party animal is finally awake." He was standing on his two hind feet on top of a big stool while leaning against the counter, he was washing multiple mugs and cups with his many vines. "You look like you're having your first hangover, I can tell these kinds of things."

Falx nodded, but his head violently backfired on him, the ivysaur laughed dryly.

Falx spoke up. "I'm gonna be right back, if they wake up just tell them to rest in their beds for me please." The ivysaur just nodded his head and went back to work. Falx spoke up before leaving the pub. "And thanks for taking care of me and my friends, that means a lot to me." He left.

The ivysaur just smirked. "Now if only I had more customers like you, Falx Gale." He said to himself. The ivysaur then continued on with his chores.

Paean and Ralph were busy sleeping until they could smell something, it smelled really nice. It's scent wafted the area, it smelled like herbs that were mixed together into a heavenly bath with arceus. They were awake but didn't want to get up because they felt so comfortable. They lied there for a while with their eyes closed, until they heard someone getting up from a chair. They both opened their eyes to find that Falx was getting up while holding something in his hand.

Ralph rubbed his eyes and sat up. "Good mornin' Falx." He then noticed that Paean was up as well. "And Paean."

Paean lifted his head, noticing that his head doesn't hurt one bit. "The hell?" He always got headaches when he went out drinking, there was no doubt that he was drinking last night though. "What is this smell?"

Falx lowered his arms so they could see what was in his hands. "This is an aromatherapy candle, this specific one was made by myself. It helps with headaches, but it doesn't do anything else otherwise." The candle was a greenish-blue color, it had a tiny wick of flame at the top.

They both got up, though Ralph was favoring his stomach. Paean laughed. "My belly is immune to the after effects of drinking!" He said dynamically.

Falx just sweatdropped at the two. "I'm gonna go to the other room where the girls are, there's no doubt that Felicia is going to have a terrible migraine." He left with the candle, the smell slowly leaving the room eventually as he did.

Falx knocked on the door, it was Lucy's room. "Hello? It's me, Falx. Can I come in?" There was no answer, he waited for a minute until suspecting that they were still asleep. He opened the door and entered the room quietly. As soon as he was inside he saw both Lucy and Felicia in the same bed with each other.

Felicia was holding on to Lucy's cotton-full back like a doll, both were still sleeping peacefully. Falx shut the door so the candle can fill the room better, then promptly sat on the floor. He couldn't leave the candle by itself, there was too much things in this room that can catch fire, so he held on to it.

As soon as the smell of the candle reached Felicia's nose she started having a dream about food, she slowly tried to take a bite out of her 'pillow', aka, Lucy's back. Falx seen this and jumped to his feet and reached over Lucy because she was closer to the edge of the bed, he tried to gently push Lucy out of the way with his free hand. Only to get his hand chomped on by Felicia. Her bite tightened immediately, he couldn't get out.

It looked really painful, but Falx didn't seem fazed by it in the least, her teeth were as sharp as scythes. He tried to wiggle out of it, but she just tightened her grip on him. He couldn't do anything else because his other hand was holding the candle, so he focused on not dropping it.

Lucy yawned, gathering Falx's attention and looked at her. She opened her eyes and instantly froze, completely expressionless, he was hovering just above her. Lucy sat up, getting closer to Falx in the process, her eyes looked glazed, like she was still dreaming. She looked at him and he looked at her, Falx got nervous from the atmosphere and at their close proximity.

Felicia was still not letting go. To make matters worse, Lucy couldn't see what was really going on, she looked like she was out of it.

Lucy got closer to Falx and hugged him. Falx was caught off guard and fell down on top of Felicia, waking her up in the process. All performed in a matter of seconds.

The door opened right after. Paean, Ralph, and even the ivysaur was standing at the doorway, looking at the sight that was before them.

Lucy was holding on to Falx's right side. Felicia looked like she was just waking up by Falx's left side, and Falx was right in the middle of the two. The candle was on the edge of the bed, making it look like what it looks like.

Paean whistled. "You work fast, Radiant Hero! You managed to score two in the same night! Hahahah!" He yelled, snapping Lucy and Felicia out of their stupor.

The girls quickly realized that they were in a very embarrassing position and sat up quickly, faces as red as tomatoes. Falx just smiled awkwardly. "this isn't what it looks like." He spoke slowly, even he would understand what kind of position he was in right now.

Ralph piped up. "The princess has been deflowered? Impure! Impure!" He pointed at them childishly.

Felicia raised her voice. "I didn't do such a thing! At least, from what I could remember last night." She turned her head away so she could focus on what events played through last night, though nothing came up.

Lucy spoke up as well. "I didn't do anything! I swear!" She said as she tried her best to look innocent.

The ivysaur just laughed it all off, clearly enjoying the entertainment. "Well, it's nice to see youth, but not too much youth!" He said as he garnered everyone's attention. "Really. My cousin would never do this kind of thing, she's too scared to. The princess is another matter, has too much pride."

Falx sighed happily. "I'm glad that you're sticking up for us, heh." He said, thanking the ivysaur. Falx got curious. "So you two are cousins?"

Lucy sighed as well, ignoring the verbal jab from the ivysaur. "A distant cousin, but a good one. He's been kind enough to let me stay here and work." She explained to everyone.

Ralph spoke up. "I guess you wouldn't know that." He said and chuckled. "This is the owner of this place, Grumpy." Ralph held his arms up to the ivysaur.

Grumpy continued his introduction. "My full name is Garpy Luis, but everyone calls me Grumpy, like the name of the pub." He sprouted a vine that hung in the air before Falx.

Falx grabbed on to the vine and pulled himself off the bed, then picked up the candle before standing straight up, he thanked Grumpy.

Grumpy sniffed the candles scent. "What is that pleasant smell?" He asked, wondering what made the candle smell so good.

The gallade held up a finger over his lips while smirking. "It's my creation of specific herbs and spices, so like any magician's magic, it's a secret." Then he shifted his body, lowering his arm. "This sort of thing doesn't exist anywhere else. You see, it stops headaches of those who are smelling it, and it has zero toxins, meaning it is great for the environment and pokemon everywhere."

Falx continued while closing one of his eyes, the other looking at Grumpy. "This 'product' would be a hit among drunks and physically ill 'mons." He made an extravagant thinking position. "Since it's only me, I can't really sell it as good if I were alone, you see."

Grumpy smirked as well. "Yeah, it would definitely be selling well here, it's a unique item of course." He retracted his vines. "70/30"

"60/40"

"65/35"

"50/50"

…

"Deal?"

"Deal!"

They had both come to an agreement, shaking hand and vine to seal the deal.

Grumpy spoke up. "Pleasure doing business with you, this candle will definitely rake in some dough." He said, satisfied that it went so smoothly.

Falx chipped in. "The best part about this is that it's practically impossible to tell its components when It forms, so we don't have to worry about my idea getting stolen." He continued, but with new information. "I know many more recipes that helps out with other things as well, I'll write to you about them in an envelope."

Everyone else was silent as the negotiations ceased, it was certainly unexpected since it was started up by Falx.

It suddenly hit Falx, he was supposed to go to the interesting building he had seen yesterday, but forgot in his drunken stead. "I gotta go somewhere today, see you guys later!" He left the room in a hurry, leaving everyone there, including the candle. They were confused by his rushed goodbye, but let it go.

Felicia and Lucy got off of the bed and made their way to the door, leaving the awkward silence that was within the room. Ralph, Paean, and Grumpy moved out of the way for the two to leave, Ralph walked behind them.

Ralph turned around to look at the last two who were still there. "See ya guys later!" He said, regaining his confidence and cool that he lost before. He left the room afterwards.

Paean and Grumpy were still standing in the hallway outside of Lucy's room, Grumpy gestured to Paean for him to follow and led him into the room. Paean closed the door behind him and waited for Grumpy to say something.

Grumpy finally spoke. "Do you remember anything last night?" He said, his tone was interestingly secretive, like his tongue would get stolen if his words were spoken to the wrong 'mon.

Paean listened for any movements from outside the door. "Yeah, years of trained drinking allows me to remember everything the night before." His voice was very low, very unnatural for the jolly tyranitar. "Except I can't do anything to stop myself from doing stupid things. Oh well, I need more training I suppose."

Grumpy nearly whispered to Paean. "So you remember what Falx said last night?"

Paean nodded his head. "Of course. It's hard to forget something like that." He made a thinking posture. "Either it's really the truth, or that he was too drunk and just wanted to humor us." Paean waited for Grumpy to give his thoughts.

"Do you remember the legend of the 'lone one'?" Grumpy asked the currently sober tyranitar. Paean looked perplexed, Grumpy sighed. "The one where a lone wanderer would become the destined hero of all of the kingdoms, or become the villain that will cause the destruction of them."

Paean's face lit up. "Oh! That legend! I almost forgot about it since it's so old! The fairytale!" His voice suddenly became loud again, forgetting the secrecy of their conversation.

Grumpy hushed. "Calm down Paean. Your bloods boiling again, you know you can't control that at all." Paean caught himself, he winced once he realized he said that out loud. Grumpy began again. "Anyways, the legend also has a name for the hero. Falx Gale. Do you think that the coincidence is too much? Or that the fairytale will prove to be real?"

Paean tried his best to keep his voice low. "Coincidence or not, Falx has assisted the Red Kingdom greatly, probably even more than I have in all my years in just one job." He seemed determined about his judgment.

Grumpy smiled. "Now let's hope that your judgment won't come back and bite you later." He humored Paean. He knew that Paean's gut feeling was almost always right. With the way that he himself seen Falx's good-natured character it just seemed impossible to see him as an enemy.

Grumpy opened the door for them to leave. "Anyways, I got a place to run." He left the room as he made his way to the counter of the pub.

Paean rushed behind him. "Can I get the usual? It's to celebrate our newest comrade!" Grumpy looked unsurely at him.

"What was last night about then?" Grumpy questioned the shiny tyranitar.

Paean spoke up heartily. "It's so I wouldn't be drunk alone of course! What other reason would it be!" Grumpy just chuckled and left the room, Paean was right after him as he tried to give the ivysaur his orders before reaching the ordering counter.

Falx had made his way out of the pub. Light shined in his eyes from the outside world, his sight quickly adjusted. He started walking down the streets of Red Castle Town.

He was thinking about his new source of income as he walked, it will prove to be useful in the long run most definitely. Falx also reminded himself that he had to accompany Charles today with his move learning training, in exchange for information and controlling the power of the Red Crystal.

Falx walked through most of the town to reach the house. It's right before the outskirts of town where very little pokemon were present.

He seen the building that caught his eye before, it was shady looking. Windows were broken and half heartedly taped back up, the dirt around it showed signs of being recently digged up. The sign on top of the building suggested that it was for morgue services. Falx felt that something was off about this place, it was very off and out of place for a booming town like Red Castle Town.

Falx walked up to the door and tried to open it. It seemed to be nailed shut from the other side, so he put more force into pulling. It opened in one strong thrust, breaking the barricade in the process. The door creaked open from its rusty hinges as he looked inside.

Falx was instantly on his toes from what he saw. "What the hell?!"


End file.
